Preparing an Elderly Relative’s Home
The coronial record on Australian heatwaves is stark: of at least 473 heat-related deaths reported to a coroner between 2001 and 2018, 244 occurred indoors, and 80% of those were people aged 60 or over, most of them in older housing.
That single statistic reframes what preparedness means for an older relative. It is not about kits. It is about whether their house can be kept cool, whether they will run the air conditioner, whether their medication survives an outage, and whether someone will physically walk through the door and look at them.
This is an afternoon of work in someone else’s house, and it is the highest-value preparedness you can do for another person.
The 10-minute version
- Register them as a life support customer with their energy retailer if they use a powered medical device. One call and a doctor’s form, and it flags the address.
- Check the cooling actually works and that they will use it. Every summer, someone is found in a house with an air conditioner they were saving money by not running.
- Check in person, twice a day, on extreme days. A phone call is not a check — heat confusion sounds completely normal on the phone.
The afternoon audit
Walk the house with this list.
Heat
- Does the cooling work? Filters clean, remote batteries good, set to cool rather than heat
- Do they know how to use it, and will they? Ask directly about the bill
- Are there curtains or blinds on the sun-facing windows, and will they close them in the morning?
- Is there a fan, and does it work?
- Is there a cool room they can retreat to?
- Is there a thermometer so someone can say what the temperature actually is?
Medication
- A week of everything, in one place, in date
- A written list of drugs and doses, on the fridge
- Anything refrigerated? If so, the esky plan — see Keeping Medication Cold Without Power
- Whose name is on the pharmacy account, and can you order for them?
Power
- Any powered medical device? CPAP, oxygen concentrator, nebuliser, dialysis, powered bed or chair
- If yes: life support registration with the retailer, plus a battery plan
- A working torch they can reach from the bed, and a battery radio
- Is the switchboard reachable and labelled?
Mobility and access
- Can they get out of the house unaided? Through which door?
- Are there steps, and is there a rail?
- If there is a fire or flood, who is collecting them? Written down, with a backup
- Do they have a car, can they still drive it, and is it registered?
Water and food
- 9 litres of water somewhere they can lift — small bottles, not a 20-litre drum
- A week of food that needs no cooking and can be opened with arthritic hands. Ring-pull tins, not a manual can opener
Communications
- A landline, if they still have one — it works in a blackout if it is a copper line, and many older people keep one for exactly this reason
- A charged mobile they actually know how to use
- Numbers in large print on the fridge: 000, SES 132 500, family, GP, pharmacy
- A personal alarm or medical alert pendant, if appropriate
Documents
- The document set, scanned by you, stored by you. See Documents and Insurance
- Whether there is an advance care directive or power of attorney, and where it is
The conversation
The audit is the easy part. The hard part is that older people frequently resist all of it — because it implies dependence, because they are frugal about bills, and because they have managed for eighty years without your list.
Things that work better than instruction:
- Ask, do not tell. “What would you do if the power went out for two days?” produces a real conversation. “You need to…” produces resistance.
- Frame it as helping you. “It would make me feel better if I knew where your medication list was” is easier to accept than a competence assessment.
- Deal with the bill directly. Energy concessions exist in every state and many pensioners are eligible and not receiving them. Running the aircon for a week is dramatically cheaper than a hospital admission, and saying that plainly helps.
- Do the work yourself. Do not leave a list. Close the curtains, change the filter, write the numbers in large print, buy the water in small bottles.
- Leave one page on the fridge, in large print, with the plan and the numbers.
The check-in that works
- In person, twice a day, on any extreme day. Morning and late afternoon.
- A phone call is not a check. Someone with heat confusion can hold a normal conversation. Look at them, look at the thermometer, look at whether the cooling is running.
- Agree a threshold in advance: if the house cannot be kept below about 30°C, they come to your place or go somewhere with cooling. Decided in advance, it is much easier to enact.
- Recruit a neighbour as a second set of eyes, with your phone number.
- On a bad day, err towards collecting them. Reluctance is not a risk assessment.
What actually goes wrong
The air conditioner is not run, to save money.
The check-in is a phone call.
Nobody registered a power-dependent device, so there is no advance notice and no priority.
Water is stored in containers they cannot lift.
Food needs a manual can opener they cannot operate.
Nobody is nominated to collect them, so everyone assumes someone else is.
The medication list exists only in their head.
The torch is in a drawer in another room.
Concessions go unclaimed for years.
Thresholds
| Situation | The rule |
|---|---|
| Powered medical device | Life support registration with the retailer, plus a battery plan |
| Forecast 3 days above 35°C, or any day above 40°C | In-person check twice daily |
| House will not go below ~30°C | Move them. Decided in advance |
| Confusion, slurred speech, unsteadiness | 000. Cool aggressively while waiting |
| Water storage | Small bottles they can lift, 9 litres minimum |
| Food | Ring-pull tins, no cooking required |
| Fire or flood risk area | A named person collects them, plus a named backup |
| Medication | A week on hand, written list on the fridge |
What it costs
| Tier | Spend | What it buys |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | The whole audit, curtains closed, filters cleaned, large-print numbers, life support registration, concession check, nominated collector |
| Solid | ~$80–150 | A fan, an indoor thermometer, a headlamp or bedside torch, a battery radio, small water bottles, ring-pull food |
| Better | ~$300–600 | An esky and gel packs for medication, a portable air conditioner or evaporative unit for one room, a personal alarm |
| If power-dependent | $600–2,000 | A battery power station sized to the device. Not optional |
The drill: the afternoon visit
- Twenty minutes. Walk the audit list above with them, not at them.
- Ten minutes. Do the physical jobs: filters, curtains, torch by the bed, water in reachable bottles.
- Ten minutes. Write the one-page plan in large print for the fridge: numbers, who collects them, the heat threshold.
- Ten minutes. Ring the energy retailer about life support registration and concessions, with them, from their phone.
- Ten minutes. Photograph and scan their document set to your own cloud storage.
- Five minutes. Introduce yourself to a neighbour and swap numbers.
Then diarise the seasonal check-ins — before summer, and before storm season.
Frequently asked questions
Why are older people so much more at risk in heatwaves?
Australian coronial data for 2001–2018 recorded at least 473 heat-related deaths, with 244 occurring indoors and 80% of those in people aged 60 or over, most in older housing. Reduced thirst sensation, chronic conditions, some medications and living alone all compound the risk.
Is a phone call enough to check on an elderly relative in a heatwave?
No. Heat confusion can sound entirely normal on the phone. Check in person, twice a day on extreme days, and look at the thermometer and whether the cooling is actually running.
What is life support registration?
A register held by energy retailers for households with a person dependent on a powered medical device. It requires a phone call and a form signed by a doctor, and it means advance notice of planned outages and a flagged address.
How do I convince someone to run their air conditioner?
Address the bill directly: check whether they qualify for a state energy concession, many do and are not claiming it, and point out that a week of cooling costs a fraction of a hospital admission. Then close the curtains and change the filter yourself rather than leaving instructions.
What food and water should be stored?
Nine litres of water per person in small bottles they can actually lift, and a week of ring-pull tinned food that needs no cooking and no can opener.
What if they refuse all of it?
Do the invisible parts anyway — scan their documents, register life support, check concessions, brief a neighbour, nominate a collector — and keep the in-person check-ins. Consent matters, and so does not needing their permission to know where their medication list is.